The aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the internet:

“We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly.  We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it.  Therefore we request twenty-one volunteers to visit seven planets to Witness for us.  We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety.  Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to witness@Atoners.com."

At first, everyone thought it was a joke.  But it wasn’t.

This is the story of three of those volunteers, and what they found on Kular A and Kular B.

About the Author(s)

Nancy Kress

Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-two books: fourteen novels of science fiction or fantasy. She has won three Nebulas, a Hugo, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.  Kress is the monthly “Fiction” columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine. She teaches regularly at Clarion.

Excerpt

1:LUCCA “Well,” Cam said, rising on her toes and leaning toward the bridge’s main screen, “there they are.”
Lucca, despite the tightness in his throat, was startled into laughter. All the hoping to be chosen for this insane mission, all the agonizing over the Atoners’ unknown selection criteria, all the complicated family reactions and media furor and governmental observation, all the tension on the voyage  out—and then Cam greets the alien star system with the most mundane understatement possible.

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